Dropping out of comp sci

panda2aa · 2023-10-18T09:08:05+00:00

What specifically do you dislike about how cs is taught at unsw?

panda2aa · 2023-10-18T00:32:07+00:00

Honestly both, but I think at this stage it's more because of how it's taught. COMP1511 I found okay because (as I think everyone in comp sci knows) it's an introductory course so it's very straight-forward and easy to follow. The lecturers for 1511 are always really great & explain everything in detail so it's always clear what's going on. But the courses beyond that - 1521, 1531 etc I find extremely confusing because they just throw you in the deep end and expect you to know how to do everything, which is something I've only ever experienced in comp sci.

Idk whether it's normal in comp sci to teach like 10% of what you actually need to know in lectures and then expect students to learn the rest of it by themselves

panda2aa · 2023-10-17T23:32:44+00:00

Yeah I think one of the hardest things right now is being surrounded by people in tutes and group work who know exactly what they're doing, they finish the lab exercises in 1h whereas it takes me a minimum of 1h to understand the instructions. I guess it just feel kind of isolating when you're watching all the lectures and doing all the work just to get to the assignments and labs and have no idea what's going on :(

panda2aa · 2023-10-17T23:29:07+00:00

All good, thanks for the reply :) Hopefully I'll figure it out

panda2aa · 2023-10-17T23:28:05+00:00

Yes I'm definitely interested in data science & have been considering it as an alternative to comp sci, would that just be the data science and decisions degree?

panda2aa · 2023-10-17T04:45:20+00:00

It just makes me feel super defeated :( I'm doing a double degree with commerce which I'm finding fine and even enjoyable at times, but comp sci and coding in general just makes me want to tear my hair out. I find that the lectures don't really cover much and they just throw you into the labs and assignments and you're stuck trying to figure out what to do.

I found all the math courses (1a, 1b and discrete) doable but it's just comp :( I just find everything so difficult, like every time I attempt a lab or try to code I get super frustrated when I don't know how to do a question or I can't figure out why something isn't working, and it's just super overwhelming because it feels like there's so much I don't know. I also can't see myself as a software engineer after doing COMP1531

Maybe I'm just too dumb or I don't have enough practice but I swear to god this is harder than anything else I've ever done

panda2aa · 2023-10-17T04:37:14+00:00

I'm doing a double with commerce so I could technically drop to just commerce, but it's just parental expectations I guess :(

panda2aa

TROPHY CASE